A Strange Fate
by Klose
Summary: An eye witness report of what happened when that fish swallowed the One Ring.


This is not what I would call a story. More like, a simple, boring account. How am I supposed to give this in the POV of the fish or the Ring… they **are** inanimate objects… and having this in someone else's POV prevents me from wholly exploring what the fish or the Ring was thinking. Anyway, on with the account...  
  
  
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A Strange Fate

            The young boy sat on the riverbank, his legs dangling in the clear water, his hands splashing slightly about it. His eyes roamed aimlessly, not quite fixating on anything in particular, for the bright sun had caused him to squint so hard that his face hurt.      

Strangely enough, even though the surrounding light was very bright, there was a glint that originated from the river, and it caught the boy's eye. He peered closer, and watched as the beam of light flowed swiftly down the water, slowing slightly as it turned about the convex bank. 

His curiosity piqued, the boy quickly stood up, and followed behind the glint. Fortunately for him, the river velocity in that part of the water body was not great, for the channel was rough and filled with boulders and outcrops, and he was therefore able to have a better look at the source of the glint. He was amazed to find that it was a golden trinket that reflected the rays of the sun, but the refraction of the light in the water presented a fragmented image, and he could not make out what exactly the trinket was. 

_Mayhap it is a Ring?_ Thought the boy, as he ran down the riverbank, his eyes raptly fixed upon the golden object. Even as he pondered its identity, however, he saw a fish swimming towards it. It seemed to be drawn to the thing, and to the boy's astonishment, the fish opened its mouth at the object. And the ring disappeared. 

The boy blinked, slowly digesting the realisation that **the fish had swallowed the ring**, and as he did so, the aquatic vertebrate had begun to convulse strangely. To add to the odd situation, it began to swim upstream, against the current, writhing in a jerky fashion as it did so. 

The boy's eyes widened as he saw this, and making an abrupt turn, he began to run after the fish. It had begun to wretch- if such a thing was possible for an aquatic animal such as itself- and now danced hyperactively from one bank to the other. The boy fancied that its pupils were lolling upwards, and he wondered if the fish had gone mad. 

_Swallowing jewellery is surely not healthy for a fish… but not to this extent?_

At an alarming pace, the fish's convulsions began to increase and its velocity in the water accelerated, despite the strong current against it. Leaping over rocks and boulders, the fish had certainly gone mad, the boy decided, as he struggled to keep up with it.          

So great was its madness, that the fish actually had the energy to jump over a short waterfall-, which was no mean feat, for it was not that big a fish.

The boy fell behind slightly, but the glint of the fish's silver scales did not allow him to lose sight of the animal, and again he caught up with it, though he was out of breath from his running.

            And then, suddenly, the fish leapt into the air, and actually rose high enough to end up landing on the bank instead of the water!

The boy gasped in surprise as the wet body of the fish slapped against the grassy slopes, and stopped in his tracks, unwilling to come nearer to it. He watched in morbid fascination as the fish continued to struggle, and gawked as it expelled something- the Ring!  

From the fish's slimy mouth, the golden band bounced once on the springy grass, before falling into the water, and letting itself be swept down the river.   

The sound of light thrashing snapped the boy's attention back to the fish. Its' fits seemed to have subsided, and now it struggled for air. But it did not seem to have the strength to return to the water, or indeed, the desire to do so. With one last desperate slap of its tail, the fish stopped its writhing. The boy knew immediately that it had died. 

And not very far away, the One Ring of Power floated on, towards yet another unsuspecting victim. 

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"But a fish took the Ring, and was filled with madness, and swam upstream leaping over rocks and waterfalls until it cast itself upon a bank, and spat out the Ring and died.

- The History of Middle-earth, Volume VI, The Return of the Shadow

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A/N: This thing was wholly based on the above passage. For all I know, it could have been taken out of context. So, if you would like to correct me, please do. And er, does anyone know which era this could have taken place in? 'Third Age - The Kings' or 'Third Age - The Stewards'? 

Review!


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